Puget Sound so far avoiding blood shortage

By Jim Haley

Herald Writer

EVERETT — When terrorists attacked in September, people from around the country flocked to their local blood banks to do their part by donating blood.

Now, blood supplies are starting to run low in other parts of the country, but the Puget Sound area supply is still in fairly good shape.

In fact, the Sept. 11 attacks helped the Puget Sound Blood Center recruit hundreds of new donors, said spokesman A.J. Pasquarelli. And a lot of them have come back.

"That’s one of the real positives that has come" out of the September disaster, Pasquarelli said. "First-time donors are coming back and becoming regular donors."

About 6,000 people showed up at the nine donation sites of the independent, volunteer-supported Puget Sound Blood Center in the first week after Sept. 11, he said. More than a third of them were first-time blood givers.

Tom Coward, lead technician at the Everett donation center, said he’s seen a lot of new donors in the wake of Sept. 11.

"A lot have already come back in for their second donation after Sept. 11," he said. "Hopefully, they’ll be back and do it again."

But most of the nation’s 36 American Red Cross regional blood centers have half their normal supply of blood platelets, officials said Wednesday. Platelets are made from donated whole blood. Platelets, which spoil after five days, are used to help stop bleeding in cancer patients.

The Red Cross accounts for about 45 percent the nation’s blood supply. The rest comes from centers such as the Puget Sound Blood Center and Pierce County’s Cascade Regional Blood Services.

Puget Sound Blood Center seems to have avoided many of the pratfalls experienced by the Red Cross.

The Red Cross provoked tension with other blood banks by seeking massive blood donations after the terrorist attacks, even after it became clear supplies were sufficient. It wound up discarding some 6 percent of donated red cells.

No donated blood was wasted here, Pasquarelli said. Staff members worked to spread out donations by scheduling donors to arrive at intervals. That way, the staff was able to maintain a steady flow of blood donations for weeks, he said.

The holiday season is usually a time of year when people have shopping and other things on their minds, and that may be one reason why blood donations are down in many parts of the country.

In western Pennsylvania, Red Cross workers began faxing radio stations, sending postcards to people with Type O negative blood and calling the 12,000 people on a donor "rapid response team" compiled after Sept. 11. Type O negative blood can be mixed with any blood type.

Things might be dire elsewhere, but not here. Still, the donation level is running "a little below optimum" in the Puget Sound area, Pasquarelli said, and donors need to keep scheduling appointments. But the level now is sufficient.

The center shoots for about 900 donations a day, and has been coming close to that.

The situation could change abruptly "with just one accident. We always have an ongoing need of a steady stream of donors," Pasquarelli said.

Pasquarelli isn’t sure why things are a little better here than in other parts of the nation. But the center does have a broad base of some 300,000 donors, about one out of every nine people in the region covered by the blood center. About a third of them are frequent donors.

There are a lot of variables, including the possibility that other regions haven’t developed a solid donor base and that other areas have had disasters that depleted local blood supplies.

But don’t feel too smug. This area’s blood center has had critical periods, and likely will again.

"We’ve had our down times here, too," Pasquarelli said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

You can call Herald Writer Jim Haley at 425-339-3447

or send e-mail to haley@heraldnet.com.

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